Clarkson University will once again offer the Young Scholars Program this summer for talented high school students.
The program, typically for rising sophomores, juniors, seniors and graduating high school students, fosters intellectual development, communication skills and cooperative problem solving.
The weeklong program will be held from July 10 to 16 on Clarkson's Potsdam campus.
Students who successfully complete the program and meet the admission requirements will receive a $4,000 scholarship -- or $1,000 per year -- toward tuition if they attend The Clarkson School or Clarkson University full time for their undergraduate education.
This year's project is "Looking for Trouble: Technological Surveillance and Mental Health in High Schools." Young Scholars will consider the many ways in which the mountain of digital information that people generate every day can be used.
Working with Clarkson professors, students will explore motivating examples of the powerful good that can be accomplished with a wide variety of surveillance data as well as powerful examples of the dangers and potential abuses. They will research the details of actual cases of surveillance and the release of "anonymized" data sets that are not truly anonymized.
Students also will investigate the current state of legal constraints and agreements. They will be challenged to balance the benefits with the risks of easy surveillance.
Over the course of the week, students will develop a hypothetical example of a surveillance system that could be used to identify mental health risks such as suicide, eating disorders or bullying through various means of technological surveillance, such as watching for keywords and other patterns in personal web searches, social media posts and text messages. They will then present their design to guest panelists along with arguments for and against deployment in their own high schools.
For further information and to download the application, visit clarkson.edu/youngscholars .
A completed application received by April 1 will be given priority consideration for admission, and selections for remaining openings will be made on a rolling basis after the regular deadline on May 15. Enrollment is capped at 40 students.
The Young Scholars Program is administered by The Clarkson School, the University's early entrance program for bright, motivated high school students who have typically completed the 11th grade and are ready to begin their college studies.
